Quote:
Originally Posted by racerbruce
Love it that you know of Laguna Seca; standing at the Corkscrew and watching the bikes (and Indy cars) flick it left/right while accelerating down that little twisty very steep hill is just amazing; as you know, the heir apparent to King Kenny Roberts was his protege....Wayne Rainey; I saw Wayne a few times on the FIM 500 CC 2 stroke GP machine....unbelievable; a moment I will NEVER forget....we were at the 1993 USGP at Laguna Seca....we just got off the transit bus from downtown Monterey and were standing in line to enter....we overheard the guys in front of us talking about "the accident"....as we listened, we learned that at the GP just prior (Italian) that Rainey crashed and was paralyzed from the neck down....we were in shock....the story gets more strange.... Wayne Rainey's private residence was literally on a hilltop that overlooks Laguna Seca Raceway....so we were standing there in shock, now knowing that our US hopeful to win the GP was paralyzed....and we were looking up at his home on the hill....surreal; since you know Laguna Seca, I believe it was the 93 GP when we were sitting near turn 10 (see link below) which is a very fast downhill section after exiting the Corkscrew (turns 8/8a)....it was late in the GP and unsure what caused the shunt, but we saw Mick Doohan on the Rothmans Honda get off at a high rate of speed....it was ugly....he severely broke his leg/ankle; it is not possible to describe the sound of these 2 stroke GP death machines....it was incredible.
http://www.weathertechraceway.com/si...ilitiesmap.pdf |
You are right my friend, these two stroke four cylinder 500cc machines even sounded like death with the crazy sound they made like a ka ka ka ka speeded up a hundred times.Laguna Seca has the Rainey Curve named after him after his horrendous accident at Misano which paralysed him and put him in a wheelchair. Another rider I've read about was the bespectacled Steve Baker on his 32 Yamaha,always smiling and like all that had heavy crashes he retired from bike racing after breaking arm and leg in a big crash at Mosport.
Nowadays those bikes have advanced tyres and can be leaned almost perpendicular to the track!